Bill Maher writes this on Huffpo:
America was invented by liberal men in Boston and Philadelphia. Not that I don’t love all of America, but rednecks who think they’re the real America should read a history book once in a while. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin, Madison — the whole lot of them were well read, erudite, European thinking children of the enlightenment, and they would have had absolutely nothing in common and less to say to a cowboy simpleton like George Bush.
I would disagree with Maher only in that Bush is, in no sense of the word, a cowoy. He is a pretend cowboy. Cowboys really work with cows and they work hard. Cutting brush in a cowboy hat is not being a cowboy.
I'm regularly annoyed by the minority Christians claiming political power by proclaiming the deeply Christian beliefs of the Enlightenment thinkers who founded our nation. Their type of Theism was much closer to that of Einstein than of Billy Graham.
That is, considering God as the unknown and unknowable creator of the universe and its laws, who has better things to do than meddle in human affairs. I've never seen a mention of Jesus anywhere in the papers written by the founders of our country. The occasional oblique mention of a creator does not a Christian Fundamentalist position proclaim.
The part about Bush as a cowboy, reminded me of a joke I heard recently.
Mr. Bush, while campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates, goes to an Indian reservation to drum up some support among the Native American population. During his address to the tribe, various tribal elder shout "Hoya!!! Hoya!!!", and G.W. takes this as some Nativie American cheer.
After the speech, George is getting a private tour of the Res with the tribal chief, and he sees some cattle, and asks the chief if if it would be okay to walk over to the cattle pen for a closer look.
the chief answers, "Sure. Jut be careful not to step in hoya!"
Bob Cesca, on why Bush is not a cowboy. Click here.